Random Thought of the Day

Quote: rxwine

Anyway, anyone who thinks cash will soon be worthless after a major catastrophe, wait 'till you see how worthless a piece of plastic will become.

Quote: Deseret News: ST. CROIX STRUGGLING IN AFTERMATH OF HUGO Published: Dec. 14, 1989

It's 10 p.m. - curfew time. Police in camouflage fatigues tell diners sipping coffee at the Tivoli Gardens they must leave the restaurant. Nobody complains."I don't mind at all," said Omi Rahim. "It keeps all the troublemakers off the streets."

Like others in St. Croix, Rahim vividly remembers the three chaotic days after Hurricane Hugo devastated the island Sept. 17 when hundreds of looters plundered stores of everything from food and clothes to VCRs and jewelry. The authorities say some police officers and members of the National Guard took part in the looting.

The turmoil prompted President Bush on Sept. 21 to send 1,100 Army troops, most of them military police, along with 170 FBI agents and federal marshals, to restore order in the U.S. territory. With most stores cleaned out, the looting had stopped by the time the troops arrived.

More than two months after the storm, 80 percent of St. Croix still lacks electricity, water and telephone service. But the troops were ordered home before Thanksgiving and were replaced by 146 National Guard MPs from Washington, D.C. Many of St. Croix's 55,000 residents say it was too early to pull the troops out.

"There's no electricity, and there are no phones, and we have no way to call police," said waiter Javier Ureta, 31. "The island is not ready to have people move around like normal days."

Maj. Doug Foster, a U.S. Army spokesman, said that, before leaving, the Army set up 14 citizens band stations equipped with telephones for emergencies. A curfew is to remain in effect until power and communications are restored. St. Croix, 40 miles east of Puerto Rico, was among the islands hardest hit by Hurricane Hugo as it swept up the Caribbean before hitting the Carolinas.

The territorial government has estimated damage at $1 billion in St. Croix and its sister islands, St. Thomas and St. John. While the other two islands are bouncing back quickly, officials say recovery could take years in St. Croix, where the storm's 200-mph winds damaged or destroyed 90 percent of the houses and buildings.

Tourism, St. Croix' lifeblood, is a writeoff this season for the most part. And, despite a construction boom, there are fears of soaring unemployment because scores of businesses were wiped out. St. Croix Hospital, with 250 beds, remains closed, and doctors are seeing patients in tents behind the building.

Thousands live in roofless homes under temporary blue plastic roofs or in Red Cross tents as they wait for the relief checks from insurance companies and the Federal Emergency Management Agency. In Charlotte Amalie on St. Thomas, the top floor of Bishop Sean O'Malley's house was blown off, but a box containing his miters remained in place. In St. Croix, workmen had to retile the roof of the Cormorant Beach Club, a hotel and condominium complex, and it has been able to reopen for the winter season.

Hundreds have fled the island, perhaps permanently. For those who have stayed to rebuild, life can be a struggle. "When you go without electricity day after day, for weeks, and you don't have water, and you don't have a roof over your head, and there are no phones, and you can't communicate with the outside world . . . well, there's a lot of stress," said commercial photographer Carol Lee.

About 400 linesmen from a dozen states, Guam and Puerto Rico are repairing lines of 15,000 downed electricity poles. The Virgin Islands Water and Power Authority has said it could be spring before electricity is fully restored. Meanwhile, the utility is investigating reports of some workers charging homeowners up to $500 to turn power on.

But children have returned to school, shelters for victims have closed, and many stores and restaurants along with a few hotels are back in business, using generators for power. Some Crucians, as residents are known, complain that accounts after the hurricane made the looting appear to be an uprising among blacks, who make up 85 percent of the population, against the wealthier whites. They scoff at reports of machete-wielding black gangs roaming the streets.

"I didn't see any white people attacked, but I sensed fear among the white people," said Rena Brodhurst-Knight, publisher of the St. Croix Avis newspaper, who is black. She said machetes, commonly used in the Caribbean as tools, were probably mistaken by outsiders as weapons.

The U.S. attorney's office has filed charges against 15 alleged looters, including Adelbert Bryan, commander of the Fredericksted police who was a gubernatorial candidate and a former St. Croix senator.

Quote: kenarman

I was looking at a list of average IQ by state.

Quote: Evenbob

All the smartest states are always in the north,
extreme north usually. All the southern states
are always the dumbest. The farthest south.
FL especially, and AL, MS. I won't get into
the reasons, why beat that dead horse.

Quote: kenarman

Check out the list EB not true.